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GODSMACK Frontman Says He Has ‘The Greatest Job In The World’

Thomas Bradley of Nitro Productions conducted an interview with GODSMACK frontman Sully Erna on May 8 at the Welcome To Rockville festival in Jacksonville, Florida. You can now watch the chat below. A couple of excerpts follow.

On how the bad economy has affected GODSMACK‘s touring:

Sully: “It’s been tricky, man, because album after album, GODSMACK has… we’ve always done fairly well, but the economy has crashed around us during these times as well. It’s been tough — it’s been tough to tour, it’s been tough to sell records. I mean, back in the day… My god, I remember not too long ago, I think ‘N SYNC had the No. 1 record, it was like 2.5 million in one week they sold, which was some kind of crazy record. But now, No. 1 record, I think, is around 40,000 units. So with this whole digital era that we’re getting into and the Internet and all that stuff, it’s really making the record labels think about how they’re gonna actually sell the physical CD tomorrow; they’re gonna be obsolete in another minute, just like vinyl records and 8-tracks were. But I think there’s an upswing happening, and that’s a good sign, that people are starting to attend the shows again. I think they’re getting sick of sitting in their bedrooms and watching everything on YouTube. So, listen, there is no question it’s a very powerful entity, the Internet — the most powerful thing in the world right now, probably — but there’s nothing like a live experience. And so, with the economy or no economy, times are tough, but I think people still try to scrape up to come to have that live experience.”

On spending so much time on the road:

Sully: “It’s a hard way to make an easy living. [laughs] It’s a lot of work. People see the one, two hours that we’re on stage and they’re like, ‘Oh, what a great lifestyle they have, man. Girls everywhere…’ It’s not that. Maybe when you’re 18 or 20, it’s that, but when you’ve been in this game for 15 or 20 years, man, it’s one of those things that it’s tough to be on a bus with four other guys and constantly sleeping in hotels and planes and trains and buses and bunks and whatever it is… lack of sleep, you’re exhausted… But I have no complaints, because I love what I do so much and we all love what we do so much that it’s worth the pain that you have to put into it as well. What people need to understand is that every job has its great days and its bad days and it’s no different in rock and roll. There’s 23 hours in a day that they don’t see us on stage that we’re designing a light show or editing a video or mixing an album or writing a song or doing interviews or travelling and being away from our loved ones and children and families. I mean, the first album we came out with, when it blew up, I don’t remember seeing my bed for almost three and a half years — it was a long time, because the better the band did, the more demand there was around the world. It’s four guys trying to touch the world, so it takes a long time to get from the States to Europe and do Europe and then get to Australia or Japan or Canada. It’s a lot of work. Again, I’m not complaining — to me, it’s the greatest job in the world, because I really am passionate about what I do. If I hated this and I made a million dollars a day doing it, it would be different — it would be that constant struggle of, ‘I make such great money but I hate what I do.’ To me, I would rather make less money and love what I do than make millions of dollars and hate my job.”

GODSMACK‘s latest effort, “The Oracle”, came out last spring. The current single is “Saints And Sinners”.

GODSMACK and DISTURBED will headline this summer’s edition of the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival tour, which kicks off on July 9 in San Bernardino, California.